Critical minerals will be one of the topics discussed at this year's G7 summit, pointed out French government Interministerial Delegate for the Supply of Strategic Ores and Minerals Benjamin Gallezot, on Wednesday, at the Investing in African Mining Indaba 2026 conference, being held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. The G7 is a grouping of the major Western economies, plus the EU, and the group had already discussed critical minerals last year.

This year's G7 summit, to be held in June, was being hosted by France. Gallezot explained that the critical minerals discussion would embrace four topics. 

The first of these was how to develop these resources, including how to bring more finance to bear on projects. They formed a niche part of the mining sector, with small markets.

The second was the market structure for critical minerals. There was a need for fair and stable prices. He affirmed that this was a very important topic. There needed to be less volatility in prices, a matter that was of interest to both producer and customer countries. 

The third topic was transparency and traceability in the mining and supply of critical minerals.

And fourth, innovation and circularity in their production and use.

"We want to reach out with countries outside the G7," he highlighted. "What are your needs? What should France convey to the G7?"

He noted that there would be a Franco-African summit, in Kenya, in May. African countries would be able to give inputs for the G7 on that occasion. 

"In France, and Europe, we are not importing minerals, generally speaking," he stressed. "We prefer to import minerals that have been processed. Our dependency is on minerals exported to China."

The finance to develop Africa's resources already existed, he affirmed. "My biggest worry is access to energy and electricity." One of France's priorities was to achieve financing for African energy and electricity projects. "One thing we have to do together is to increase access to electricity and energy." This was necessary both for the people and for the beneficiation of minerals. "It takes time."